Slinger construction



Nov. 1 0, 1959 R. H. 'MERRlcK SLINGER CONSTRUCTION Filed May l, 1957 FIG.

. O O O O FIG. 2

w. mm TR ME VM. WH D R A H C R ATTORNEY.

United States Patent SLINGER CONSTRUCTION Richard H. Merrick, East Syracuse, N.Y., assguor to `Carrier Corporation, Syracuse, N.Y., a `corporation of Delaware Application May 1, 1957, Serial No. 656,446

1 Claim. (Cl. 239-220) This invention relates to liquid distribution and more particularly to a slinger construction for distributing liquid from a sump on to a surface adjacent thereto.

In varous applications, such as evaporative condensers used in air conditioning, it is necessary to distribute a iilrn of liquid over a surface. Heretofore when this liquid was projected from ia sump by a slinger, portions of the slinger extended below the liquid level in the sump in such a manner that expensive bearing and seal constructions were required. Furthermore a large slinger was usually required to eiiciently wet a relatively large area. It is with the obviating of the foregoing shortcomings of the prior art that the present invention is concerned.

It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an ecient slinger construction which is simple in construction. v

It is another object of the present invention to provide a slinger construction which is inexpensive to manufacture.

It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a slinger construction which does not require the use of seals and/ or bearings which are submerged beneath the liquid level in a sump.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a slinger member which is relatively small in comparison to the surface to be wetted thus utilizing a minimum of material. Other objects and attendant advantages of the present invention will readily be perceived hereafter.

The present invention relates to a slinger assembly wherein a relatively small slinger member having a portion thereof submerged in a sump is capable of projecting liquid onto a relatively large surface proximate said sump. The slinger member is mounted for rotation on a shaft which extends at an angle to the surface of the liquid in the sump. Thus the use of submerged bearings and seals is obviated. The eicient and economical slinger assembly of the present invention will be more fully understood when the following portions of the specification are read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is an elevational view of the slinger assembly of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a view in plan of the structure of Figure l; and

Figure 3 is a detail view of the configuration of a slightly modified slinger generally similar to that shown in Figures l and 2.

Reference is now made to Figure 1 wherein numeral 10 depicts a sump containing a predetermined amount of liquid 11. A bracket 12 is suitably aixed to one end of sump and it in turn mounts motor mounting bracket 13 in which electric motor 14 is mounted. Shaft 15 of electric motor `14 is inclined downwardly towards the liquid 11 in the sump. A slinger member 16 of generally frusto-conical configuration, as described in detail hereafter, is suitably mounted on the free end of shaft 1S in any suitable manner. For example, nut 17 may abut against one side of the smaller base of member 16, the other side of said base being abutted by a suitable collar (not shown) on shaft 15. A shroud 18 partially surrounds slinger member 16. Shroud 18 has a portion thereof below the liquid level in sump 10 so that the liquid may enter the shroud. The larger base of frustoconical slinger 16 is open so that liquid accumulating in shroud 18 may enter the inside of the slinger.

A heat exchange member 19, such as an evaporative condenser, is positioned proximate sump 10 and the associated slinger assembly. Liquid 11 which is projected by the slinger member 16 from sump '1Y0 is adapted to impinge on the surface of member 19. It can readily be seen that the size of slinger member 16 is relatively small when compared to the size of heat exchange member 19. A fan 19 is positioned proximate evaporative condenser 19 for drawing air through it in the conventional manner.

The construction of slinger member 16 may be more readily appreciated from Figure 3 to which reference is now made. A plurality of upstanding ridges 20 are formed in the surface of frusto-conical slinger 16. In the depressions 21 intermediate adjacent upstanding ridges 20 are formed a plurality of apertures 22 which extend between the inner and outer surfaces of slinger 16. As can be seen from Figure 3, each series of apertures 22 in a depression 21 extends circumferentially about the frustoconical surface. Liquid which enters the inside of slinger 16, as mentioned above, is projected outwardly through apertures 22 on to heat exchange member 19, as described in detail hereafter. As will be appreciated, any desired number of ridges Ztl and grooves 21 may be provided on slinger member 16. For purposes of illustration four such grooves are sho-Wn in Figures l and ve grooves are shown in the modification of Figure 3.

The slinger assembly of the present invention operates in the following manner: Before motor 14 is started, liquid 11 from sump lll will seep into shroud 18 because one edge of the latter is lower than the liquid level in the sump. Upon starting up of motor 14 the rotation 0f slinger 16 will cause a certain amount of liquid to be thrown from shroud 13 so as to partially empty the latter. As can be seen from Figure l, the surface of slinger member 16 which is closest to the bottom of shroud 18 is al- Ways substantially parallel to the latter, and the Water level within shroud 18 is always sufliciently high so that it may enter into the open larger base portion'of slingerY 16. Liquid will thus be distributed o'ver the internal surface of slinger 16. As can be seen from Figure l, water which is projected from the larger diameter portions of slinger 16 will be projected farther than the liquid which is projected from the smaller diameter portions thereof. Thus the trajectory of the liquid leaving slinger 16 is such that member 19 is substantially covered in a vertical direction by the projected liquid, as shown in Figure l.

As can be seen from Figure 2, the slinger 16 is positioned acentrically relative to heat exchange member 19. It is to be noted that the direction of rotation of slinger 16 is indicated by the arrow in Figure 2. The droplets of liquid which thus come olf of slinger 16 iirst have a longer distance to travel before reaching heat exchange member 19 than the droplets which are last to leave the slinger. These droplets coming off first contain more liquid than those which come off later. Since the former have further to travel than the latter, they will be spread apart a greater amount when they reach member 19 so that equal amounts of liquid fall on substantially all portions of member 19. Furthermore, since the lighter droplets have less distance to travel to reach surface 19, there will be less tendency for them to be deected by air currents before reaching it. The side 23 of shroud 1S (Figure 2) is positioned so that it catches any liquid being prematurely thrown from slinger 16 thus preventing the liquid from being thrown Wide of member 19. It will be appreciated that slinger 16 may be oriented in any position which will give a most effective liquid pattern, and that theposition of slinger 16 is not "restricted to that shown in the'drawings.

As can be seen from Figure 3, the apertures 22 lie in the depressed portions-of the slinger 16 which are between ridges 20. Part of the liquid which is forced through these apertures by centrifugal force tends to spread over the surfaces of these ridges until such time that the extremities of the ridges are reached and the liquid is present-invention has wide application, it can be seen that it has particularly great application when used in conjunction with the evaporative condenser depicted in the drawings because it gives the required degree of liquid coverage thereto.

=It can thus be seen that I have provided a simple and Aefficient slinger construction which can be produced at a low cost and which permits low cost operation because the use of liquid seals and bearings extending under the liquid surface have been obviated and because the slinger assembly is constructed from a minimum of material.

Whilel have described a preferred embodiment of my invention I desire it to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto since it may be otherwise embodied wthin the scope of the following claim.

I claim:

A slinger assembly for projecting liquid onto an adjacent surface comprising a slinger member, said slinger member being hollow and generally frusto-conical in shape and having an axis, the conical surface of said slinger having a plurality of continuous upstanding annular ridges of graduated diameter and a plurality of annular depressions intermediate of and joining said annular ridges, each said annular ridge being of uniform external diameter throughout its circumference, each of said annular depressions being of lesser diameter than the adjacent pair of Yridges between which it is located and having a plurality lof circumferentially spaced apertures therein placing the surface of said slinger in communication with the hollow interior thereof, said ridges and said depressions being concentric with the axis of said slinger, a coaxially extending shaft secured to said slinger, an electric motor operatively associated with said shaft to rotate the slinger about its axis, a sump adapted to contain a liquid therein, said hollow slinger being open at one end thereof and mounted in said sump with the frusto-conical surface of said slinger and said open end adapted to be positioned partially below the surface of a liquid contained within said sump, said generally frustoconical surface of said slinger being substantially parallel with the surface of said liquid whereby some liquid is enabled to be picked up in said depressions and slung from said surface and also some liquid may enter the interior of said slinger, pass through said apertures, and be slung from the rotating surface ofthe slinger to wet the adjacent surface.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,616,545 Perkins .Feb. 8, 1927 1,667,291 Lavett Apr. 24, 1928 1,948,278 Payne et al. Feb. 20, 1934 2,064,271 Schmidt Dec. 15, 1936 2,091,159 Persons Aug. 24, 1937 2,448,297 Christensen Aug. 31, 1948 

